Thursday, April 27, 2017

Most people know that the Church of England started because King Henry VIII needed an annulment from his wife, Catherine of Aragon.

What people often don’t realize is that the Pope did often grant annulments for royalty who wanted male heirs. In this case, though, Catherine’s brother didn’t allow the Pope to grant the request. After several attempts, Henry passed the Act of Succession and then Act of Supremacy that gave him control over the Church in England.

While this was the beginning of the Church of England it was not the beginning of Anglicanism.

England was ripe for change to the structure of the church. On the mainland, there were many who were “protesting” the Roman Catholic Church. These “Protestants” were raising doubts over the supremacy of the church of Rome and its teachings. With progress on the mainland, the church in England started to push away from Rome.